Colossians 2:18-19:
(commentary in blue)
Let no man beguile you of your reward (concerns false doctrine) in a voluntary humility (refers to self-abasement) and worshipping of Angels (pertained to the Gnostic teaching; this false teaching claimed man could not go directly to God through Jesus Christ, but rather must reach after God through successive grades of intermediate beings, i.e., “Angels”), intruding into those things which he has not seen (refers to going outside the revealed Word of God), vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind (“mind of the flesh”, which means its not the mind of God)
And not holding the Head (failure to look totally to Christ and the Cross will ultimately lead to destruction), from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered (Christ is the source of all nourishment which comes by the means of the Cross), and knit together, increases with the increase of God (proper Faith in the Cross guarantees spiritual increase)
Hi, John
Good post. I agree with you on all the points presented directly (as far as I understand them), but I do think that God gives us direct revelation through His Holy Spirit. (We have the mind of Christ.) Most of the time, it’s simply a collage of things from the written word which comes to me as a rhema word that is particularly relevant to me. He’s so gracious in His willingness to tell me the same things over and over in different ways until I truly learn them.
Sometimes, it might be a special word–also compatible with scripture, but containing a pertinent bit of information not available in scripture, such as: “Say thus and such to so and so,” or maybe even just “Pray for that person now.” Sometimes maybe I miss it, but it never hurts to pray for someone anyhow, and whatever edifying words you might speak to a brother or sister can’t really be amiss. Often, though, the person will say something like, “That’s just what God has been saying to me this week,” or I’ll find out later that the person I felt prompted to pray for had been through some trial or dangerous situation at about the time I was praying for him.
So in that sense, I do know that God speaks to us in supplement to His written word. Never contradictory–if it doesn’t agree with scripture, it’s not Him, but in specifics that he might want us to know at the moment or in reinforcement of things He’s teaching us and similar situations. I really enjoy hearing from Him. He’s my very best friend.
God bless, Cindy
Cindy,
I agree with what you say. I guess my intent on posting this passage was to counter the growing belief that God is revealing new doctrine and new ideas about his nature that do not line up with God’s Word.
One example is Todd Bentley who gives very detailed information about his supposed trips to “heaven” his description of “angels” and what these supposed “angels” tell him.
Another is the growing acceptance among Christians to accept Mormons as a valid Christian Faith. The saying goes “well does it really matter that they have ideas about God that may not be revealed in God’s Word?” Yes it does matter when their belief about the nature of God contradicts God’s Word!
The passage above says very clearly that if Jesus. (the Jesus as described in God’s Word) and him crucified, meaning the Jesus and the work he did at the cross as described in God’s Word is not the fundamental core of all faith then then any teaching or signs that follow will not be real and if not real then the one true God can not be revealed and hence there will not be any real spiritual increase within us.
I completely agree that the Holy Spirit speaks to us to reveal things to us to bring greater understanding of his Word and also to give us spiritual insight to help other people or situations.
But all of those will always line up with God’s Word. They will never contradict it.
Also I am disturbed the direction that Pentecostalism has taken. I grew up in the Assembly of God and I can remember the Gifts of the Spirit functioning but what was said and done via those Gifts was always validated against God’s Word!
It was always “signs following” meaning the signs were a result of a proper teaching of the Word and good doctrine! And this is what the Apostle Paul always stressed. True gifts come through proper doctrine!
Today in Pentecostal circles this has changed. Now it is “signs leading” and if it doesn’t line up with God’s Word well they will sort of wait and see if “the flesh portion (emotionalism) and what’s not Biblical” decreases and the “God portion, parts that look Biblical” increases.
It sort of saying a bad seed can produce good fruit! This denies God’s Word! If the preacher is up there saying things that clearly contradict God’s word or he is miss-handling God’s Word and there are signs and wonders, people need to be good Bereans and step back and say hey this is not of God!
Quite a few people today who defend unbiblical teaching that has signs and wonders, point back to the Pharisee’s and Jews in Jesus day and say. See they were blind too as what Jesus did, did not seem to line up with God’s Word.
This is a false analogy. As what Jesus did actually did line up with God’s Word! It was the Pharisee’s with their non-Biblical Oral Traditions who had taken people’s focus away from God’s Word and towards their oral tradition and hence blinded them!
But there were some who still understood God’s Word! And lived by faith! and hence the Holy Spirit revealed to them who the real Christ was!
What we have today in God’s Revealed word is fully sufficient for us to be able to test what we see and hear today whether it is of God.
The lying spirit for our age is the one of Universal Spirituality that says doctrine does not matter; it’s the signs that matter. And that is a very dangerous place to be.
The level of Biblical ignorance today is tragic! Everyone has a book out! That takes peoples focus away from God’s Word and onto their book! People are becoming blind to God’s Word.
God Bless and I always appreciate good comments!
John Baker
Thanks for your excellent reply, John. Living in western SD and not watching much television, let alone religious programming, most of my news about the church “out there” comes from blog posts like this one. I had heard about the Lakeland thing. What a shame. I lived in Lakeland for several years and in the next town for most of my life, and I can’t say I’m surprised, but you’re right. It’s really devastating how far the AOG has fallen.
Thanks particularly for your bit about the pharisees. I’ve had people say just that to me, and was puzzled as to how to reply in a way they’d understand, but you make it much simpler. The pharisees weren’t even that interested in the law and the prophets, but rather in their own interpretations of them. How could I have missed that? I was aware of it, but somehow I didn’t make the connection in the context of the “pharisee argument.”
Do you really think people are so ignorant of the bible? I do enjoy many of the books people have out. I used to shun them and read only the bible, but now I read both because I see the books as my brothers’ and sisters’ outlet for ministering in the gifts the Holy Spirit has given them. Of course you can get into a lot of trouble reading this kind of stuff if you don’t know the bible. They’re not all ministering in the gifts–some of them are ministering in the flesh, and some, regrettably, just want to make money.
Anyway, thanks so much for your well-thought-out reply. It is a great help to me.
God bless, Cindy